A new telescope has opened its eye to the heavens: the Discovery Channel Telescope – yes, that Discovery Channel – that’s part of the venerable Lowell Observatory. Sitting on a mountain top in Arizona, over the weekend the 4.3 meter telescope saw what astronomers call "first light": the first time it sees actual photons from the sky. Its first target: the lovely galaxy M 109:

[Click to galactinate, and also see pictures of the Whirlpool and Sombrero galaxies.]

M 109 is a barred spiral galaxy about 85 or so million light years away in the direction of Ursa Major, and is part of a loose group containing about 50 other galaxies both big and small. It’s the brightest in the group, and located on its far side from us.

The Discovery Channel Telescope is designed to see in optical light (the kind we see with our eyes) as well as near-infrared. I’m very glad to see it operational: as I’ve said here so many times, the more eyes we have on the sky, the better. The sky is wide and deep, and there’s so much to see and learn. With this new addition to our fleet of scientific instruments peering into the Universe, our understand will only grow.

It occurs to me that spiral galaxies, but especially the barred versions, may function as balance wheels in gigantic watch movements. Now all we have to do is find the fast and slow settings, and the winder.

@ #8: Discovery Communications, parent company of the Discovery Channel, is home to much of the worst dreck on TV. They own a LOT of cable channels, including Discovery, TLC (formerly, but no longer, The Learning Channel), Animal Planet, The Science Channel, and Oprah! Take “Mermaids — The Body Found”, recently broadcast on Animal Planet. Please!

Yes, they did give Phil a show about real science a couple of years ago. And proceeded to bury it in favor of the usual junk. Even Mythbusters has degenerated into pretty much nothing but “Jamie wants big boom.”

Give them *some* credit. Yeah, they run crap during the day (like everybody) but they also produce shows like “Through the Wormhole” and “The Planets” and co-produce stuff with BBC Worldwide like “Planet Earth”. Yes, they do run crap. So does everybody. But they do not run exclusively crap, unlike a lot of other channels.

Mythbusters? I think they’ve basically run out of material, and that’s why they’re in the Jamie Want Big Boom phase. They’re still very entertaining to me, but yeah, the actual science has gotten less interesting of late. They picked all the low-hanging fruit already. I loved their moon landing episode, though. 😉 Never has there been a better rebuttal of the shadow nonsense.

I hate what the former science and education channels have turned into! Even the “better” shows (“Through the Wormhole”, etc.) have way too much glitz and nonsense for my taste. So much so that I find nearly all of them unwatchable.

I agree with some of you who say that Discovery Channel has lost it’s way.
I remember watching some good science and nature programs on DC and TLC.
Now it seems that everything is a reality show. The Science Channel still has
some good programs but I find myself watching more and more of H2.
Hopefully the DCT will help them get back to their roots.

1. I suspect that any of several factors may contribute to stars becoming disks: being first light, fine adjustments are still to be expected: CCD’s, AO, etc. OR something as simple as transforming the electronic image to print quality, or better yet the limits of flat screen optics. We need to see what the future brings, if it is an expensive lemon. (I certainly hope not!)
2.We’ve seen how it’s made, but not how it being paid for. Is it paid for, or is it a gamble of loans & collateral yet to be fully paid. Who decides who can use it? Maybe someone is still looking for the Martian Canals?